Credit: Karen Walker
Emotion and urgency hung heavy in the air on the
lawns of the US Capitol as the CEOs of three major airlines, the leaders of
five large aviation unions and two congressmen appealed to Washington “to do
the right thing.”
The "right thing" they are asking for is
passage of a bill that would extend the government’s payroll support program,
set to expire at the end of September, for another six months. It’s a big ask,
given that Congress stepped up early in the pandemic and passed the CARES Act
in March that has provided US airlines with billions of dollars in secured
lending funds, payroll support and other relief aid.
Since then, the pandemic has lasted longer, bit
deeper into lives and economies than anyone predicted, and many businesses are
failing.
But the Air Carrier Worker Support Extension Act,
introduced by Republican Senators Roger Wicker and Susan Collins, is thoughtful
and practical. It
provides an additional $28.5 billion in payroll but only requires $11 billion
of new appropriations, with the remaining $17.5 billion repurposed from unspent
CARES Act secured lending funds. The bill
also has bipartisan support and the White House has indicated that President
Donald Trump would sign it.
It would be huge in terms of securing airline jobs
through what is increasingly looking like a brutal winter season of continued
Covid spikes, quarantines and likely continued much-reduced demand for flights
relative to 2019. It would, therefore, be a bridge to get US airlines to the
other side and to rapidly pick up and deliver fuller networks when there is
more appetite for travel. Skilled pilots and flight attendants—thousands of
whom have already been furloughed--are not easily re-hired; there are training
requirements and schedules to be worked that take time.
But that was not the focus of the press event on
Sept. 22 on Capitol Hill, attended by the CEOs of American Airlines, JetBlue
Airways and United Airlines. The focus—more of an appeal—was on making
Washington understand what is at stake. In just a few days, thousands of
airline employees could find themselves out of a job, with no healthcare in a
pandemic.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of
Flight Attendants-CWA, told of people moving their stuff into cars and of a
flight attendant who was furloughed after 9/11 and now finds herself in the
same situation. This time, her husband is awaiting a heart transplant and her
furlough could move him down the waiting list.
These employees, each CEO and union leader
reminded Congress, have been frontline workers through the pandemic, allowing
medical workers, equipment and supplies to get to where they needed to be
while, as United’s Scott Kirby put it, “most of us were sheltering at home.”
The frustration and disbelief that a solution is
so close at hand, but so out of grasp, was palpable.
“We are imploring not just Congress, but everyone
here in Washington to do the right thing,” Kirby said.
The odds are stacked against them; Washington is
at its usual political games, focused on when and who a nomination should be
made to succeed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who died last week.
And then there’s the presidential election.
“We are not giving up, but Congress need to do
what’s right,” American’s Doug Parker said. He led an airline through 9/11,
when he was CEO at America West, then through two airline bankruptcies and the
US Airways/American merger. His task this week is likely his hardest ever. And
it will be all the more heartbreaking if Washington doesn’t heed the call.
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